DP: Season One
by Fruitiest of Mallards
Summary: Danny Fenton was fourteen when his parents built a very strange machine, designed to view a world unseen. When it didn't quite work, his folks just quit, but then Danny took a look inside of it...First in a series, s1 rewritten. Searching for betas, concrit appreciated.
1. THE ACCIDENT, 1

Danny Fenton woke up to the sound of his sister Jazmine yelling. This wasn't such an uncommon thing, and for someone who liked to boast of her maturity compared to others her age—she was sixteen—she sure did lose her temper a bit often. Danny found that funny. What was she angry about now? He'd slept all night with his bedroom door open, and as he took a deep breath, he could smell the reason why this morning was going to be the start of a different kind of day. Smoke. In the house. Well, if his sister or their parents weren't rushing them out of the house, then it must not be that big of a deal.

Things like this happened every once in a while. It was kind of standard when one's parents owned a laboratory in the basement. He didn't bother going downstairs and asking. His pinkish pajamas were creased and his skin was grimy. Instead, he showered and dressed. Fourteen years old, Danny's taste in clothing wasn't particularly refined, limited to jeans and t-shirts of varying color. The month was September, pretty early into the school year, and sometimes days were chillier than others. He wore one of four jackets then. A blue one, a red one, a gray one and another patterned after Spider-Man's suit.

Jolting, Danny suddenly realized that today was his birthday. The twenty-third. He talked about it earlier that week but had somehow forgotten at the last minute. He wondered if he should mention it. Walking into the kitchen, his parents sat at the dining table. They looked tired. He wasn't an excitable little boy anymore, but it was important, wasn't it? Debating with himself internally, he took a deep refreshing breath and said, "Uh, hi, guys."

"Good morning, Danny!" Piped his father, Jack, slightly loud. His mother, Maddie, greeted him with a yawn. Danny's parents were a strange pair. It seemed as if they had been made in heaven for one another, but when they got into fights the ice could be felt throughout the entire household. Jack was a big, broad man, at 6'4'' and nearly three feet wide at the shoulders. Maddie was much smaller and thinner, and from a distance she may have seemed delicate, but up close it was easy to tell that she was a sturdy woman who'd worked to reach the point in her life she was currently at.

Maddie thought that her son was shy, but in reality he'd grown out of that stage a couple years ago. Danny was not an extrovert, but he wasn't a complete introvert, either. Maybe someday there would be a term for what he was. For now, though, he was content being himself. He was pretty optimistic, and funny, but he didn't think he was all that great. Jack on the other hand was prouder of his son than could truly be fathomed. He believed Danny was a chip off the old block.

Danny asked, "What's up?"

Jack shrugged, "Nothing much, your mom and I are just taking a break from our project." Right, the project. The one Danny had been hearing about for all fourteen years of his life. It was down in the laboratory, safely hidden away from meddling teenagers such as himself and his sister. "I hope we didn't disturb you too much earlier."

"What, with the smoke? Nah. The only thing that woke me up was Jazz." Danny answered, honestly. Jack snorted and covered it up by slugging down some more coffee. Knowing Jazmine 'Jazz' Fenton, she was already halfway to school, having driven there in her own car which she'd half-bought with her own money the year previous. The rest had been paid by their parents.

"Oh, that was a mishap," Maddie waved her hand. "Don't worry about it."

He wouldn't. "'Kay," he paused, "Um…you know…today's my birthday, right?"

Both of their eyes grew very wide.

"It is!" Maddie cried. "Oh, sweetheart, I forgot!"

They were going to make a big deal out of this. "It's fine," Danny shook his head. "I mean…am I even gonna get presents? I don't care if I don't, I'm kinda old for it now. I guess I'm just curious."

"Well, I dunno, Danno," said Jack. 'Danno.' Geez. "Do you _want_ a present?"

Danny bit his lip. "Maybe…like, one, would be nice. Nothing huge. Not a preteen anymore, y'know?"

Jack beamed, clapping a hand on his son's arm, "That's the spirit!"

"We'll be sure to get you something, sweetie," his mother assured. "I'm not sure when, but we will. Ask us when you get back home from school."

"Cool, thanks."

"Want breakfast?"

Come to think of it..."Sure!"

His mom opened the fridge.

Jack cleared his throat, "Would you like to hear about our project?"

The project. The primary project that they had been perfecting for years, clandestine, down in the basement. It wasn't entirely a secret since Danny knew what it was and that it existed, but it held a sort of unknown air about it. Danny paused. His mom and dad were notorious about yammering on and on about their work to their kids. He decided to humor them. Their faces lit up when he observed, "Okay, you're really excited about it."

"It should be done by tomorrow," his mom said. "Isn't that a coincidence?"

He blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Yep! Can you believe it? Eighteen years in development, and tomorrow is the last day!" She beamed.

"Cool! I hope it goes well." Danny was being honest. He was curious about it, always had been. Jazz was the opposite, she had never cared for their profession, much less the 'insane' things they built.

"Trust us, Danny boy, so do we," Jack grinned.

Maddie and Jack Fenton were abnormal by conventional standards, as their field of study involved ghosts. They were well known in the paranormal science community for being pioneers in what was called ectology, the study of ectoplasm. As in, the stuff found in pictures of faked séances and medium contact with the otherworld. The afterlife. What few other ectologists existed couldn't be compared to the expertise of the Fentons, it was too bad that the rest of the scientific world didn't take them seriously. At all. The most that had happened was a brief scene with the Church over what ectology possibly implied about the dead.

It had been swept under the rug fairly quickly.

Danny wasn't really embarrassed by his parents, minus when they did things like attach a gigantic, extremely visible emergency Ops Center on the roof of the house they lived in. They actually did that. Hey, Jack shrugged, they bought and designed the house custom, they might as well add onto it. _But, what are we ever going to use an Ops Center for?_ Jazz demanded, indignant, watching the baffled onlookers, mostly neighbors, staring at their home blatantly as they passed by.

_You can never be too prepared, Jazzypants!_ That was Jack, too.

_Don't call me that..._

Once he'd finished breakfast—leftovers from yesterday's dinner and orange juice—he headed back upstairs to throw on his backpack. He subconsciously had a feeling that they'd forget. Oh, well. As long as it happened eventually. He darted out the front door to catch the bus. As he made the trek he thought of his family. His sister, the studious girl whose entire train of thought centered around psychology, who'd received the highest testing score in the history of their high-school, and his parents, the engineering scientists, who were finally drawing their single greatest project to an end...


	2. THE ACCIDENT, 2

Danny was joined on the school-bus by his long-time best friend, Tucker Foley. Together, they chatted about various things, how much fun they'd had the night before on their video-games, which they'd played online, and thus with each-other (the two were largely inseparable), what sort of things they were aiming to accomplish that day, etc...topics they usually spoke about.

The conversation was nothing grand until Tucker recalled that it was Danny's birthday. "Dude! You're like, older than me!" It was true, Tucker's fourteenth birthday wasn't due till November.

"I know, right?" Danny grinned.

"I will _totally_ give you one of my old video-games to celebrate," Tucker said.

"Really?" Danny was overjoyed. They had similar taste in games. "Which one? I mean, you don't have to!"

"Nah, consider it a rite of passage into teenage-hood," Tucker smirked, "Remember all those _Cabela's_ hunting games you were obsessed with? I've never been all that into 'em."

"That is _awesome!_ Thanks so much!"

"Don't mention it, man."

The bus stopped, precisely in front of their school, Casper High. Danny got out with Tucker close in tow, and they walked beside each other to the entrance. This was routine for them. They were practically brothers. They'd known the other since kindergarten. Tucker had his own friends, none of them as close as Danny, while Danny got along with most everyone.

Danny was a quiet, amiable kid, somewhere in the lower middle of the social food chain. Tucker was about the same, but he had his own label. He was a geek, or more specifically, a technogeek. He was a whiz at technology and wasted no remorse on the fact. He was kind of a genius, too, but he usually bypassed his own intelligence in favor of being a smart-aleck, and a self-proclaimed ladies' man.

The next hour was an enjoyable one, Danny filled with thoughts of what interesting things might happen the rest of the day, especially after getting home, and Tucker left him to go to his own first period homeroom class. Danny rather liked his homeroom, though he was more than a little sure that most homerooms didn't give as much classwork as his did. It didn't matter, he could handle it. Mr. Lancer, his homeroom teacher, was an overweight balding man, who was nice enough so long as no one caused problems.

Danny did not plan on being a problem student. He went out of his way to avoid it. He'd never been a troublemaker and he preferred it that way. His parents had always drilled it into his skull that good grades were earned, and he intended to earn them. His older sister took that lesson to heart much, much more personally than he did, but he couldn't truly begrudge her that. She was annoying, sure, but at least she could back up her words.

Danny occasionally felt like a loser compared to her. He hated it. He supposed that was why he messed with her so much. To make himself feel better. He hoped that didn't make him a bully of sorts. He didn't have a lot of affection for—

"Hey, Fenton!"

Bullies.

A robust blonde boy with purplish blue eyes walked up to Danny. "I heard your parents put up a sign on your house." The boy's name was Dashiel Baxter, but no one called him Dashiel under pain of a beating. He was the apex predator of Casper High, the top dog, with circles upon circles of friends to back him up. He was a jock, a bully, and he didn't have a lot of affection for Danny, either. It all started several years back in middle-school, when Danny's parents had put up a huge sign on their house, reading _FentonWorks_ in big, illuminated letters. Dash made fun of them for being crackpots and Danny...lost his temper. They'd been enemies since, although Dash always made a greater deal out of it than Danny ever did.

"The sign has been there for years, Dash," Danny muttered, "I don't see why it matters."

Dash scoffed, "It matters 'cause your parents are freaks! Like you!" The same old topic. Dash never quite dropped it.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Baxter?" Mr. Lancer's distinct voice cut into their conversation from his desk and Danny was awash with relief.

Dash frowned deeply, turning and heading back to his own seat, "No, sir."

"Good."

Danny couldn't help but agree.

Second period was Mr. Falluca, in biology. Falluca was a short gray-haired man; he gave off a kind aura and never seemed to raise his voice. He was a ninth-grade teacher so he knew how to deal with the immaturity of freshmen. Danny fiddled with his pencil. Biology was like math to him, he didn't like it, didn't hate it, but he knew he had to learn it. Tucker wasn't in this class either, but someone else was. His other friend, a girl named Sam Manson. Like Dash, he had also met her in middle-school, but with much different results. He hadn't expected to grow so close to her, especially when they were so different, but he did.

"Hey," she said, a couple seats away. Danny nodded at her. Her pink-violet eyes were friendly and a nice sight to see after the confrontation with Dash half an hour ago. "Happy birthday."

She remembered?

"Thanks, Sam." He was suddenly lighter on his feet. Tucker, he expected to remember. But Sam? It was cool though.

She was a vegetarian and a Goth. She was disdainful of all things brightly-colored and mainstream, preferring to wear skirts with thick leggings which were practically pants. She showed her midriff on a regular basis thanks to the types of shirts she chose to wear, which Danny guessed was to mortify her parents. Every day she donned steel-toed boots. Her hair was dyed darker than it really was, tied into an upright ponytail. In middle-school she'd gone as far as to shave one side of her head, regrowing it back for some reason during the summer. Danny wasn't very educated on hairstyling and couldn't imagine changing his own black hair on a whim like that.

Except Sam insisted she did nothing on a whim. Everything she did, she put great thought into, she said. Danny liked that about her. She was confident about where she stood. Sam didn't do anything she didn't want to do, and fought to do the things she liked. Hearing her go on and on about her views got a little old sometimes, but Danny thought it was worth it to be her friend. She came up with the craziest things sometimes. It was interesting spending time with her.

He inquired, "Anything new?" It was a Thursday. The school week was ending. Sam had yet to find anything new or odd to mull over the whole week, which was out of character for her. If it wasn't occult, it didn't catch her attention, and if it didn't do that, she was hardly going to share it with her friends. According to her, she only had two—Danny himself, and Tucker. She connected with Danny most, since she and Tucker were prone to spats now and again. The rest of the Gothic population she interacted with were acquaintances.

His asking dampened her mood, "No. Unfortunately."

He shrugged. "You know, you don't _have_ to scour the planet for freaky stuff just to impress us."

"I don't do it to _impress_ you guys," she said vehemently. "I do it to keep myself from being bored to death!"

"Okay, okay," he held up his hands in mock surrender. "Just...um..." What could he say?

She rolled her eyes and returned to her paperwork, pen scribbling furiously away at the problems Falluca had given. Wow, she was touchy about this. He made a mental note not to mention it anymore.

Second period ended, they gave their goodbyes, and Danny was once more alone. Third period was Mrs. Saddlewhite, World History. Mrs. Saddlewhite was a middle-aged blonde woman with a Midwestern accent. He'd been in school a handful of weeks and she was the one teacher he'd come to know the least. It didn't matter. She was normally preoccupied trying to quiet down the rowdier kids in her class. Nothing out of the ordinary happened there. A couple of Dash's friends were in that class and caused an appropriate ruckus for football team members, but they let Danny be. That was what he cared about. Fourth period was far more looked forward to because both Tucker and Sam were in that class. On the other hand, fourth period was P.E. with Coach Tetslaff. Win some, lose some.

Tetslaff was a burly person who strongly reminded Danny of his aunt. His mom was from Arkansas and she had a sister. If Aunt Alicia was more like Tetslaff, he'd definitely dread visiting her more. Tetslaff was a slave driver, to put it plainly. He supposed that meant she was an effective teacher.

Danny could see Sam and Tucker in their respective spots in line and didn't expend energy doing anything. They didn't need confirmation of his presence. According to Tetslaff, they were being assigned teams to play volleyball. Great. Danny wasn't talented at ball-games. He was good at dodge-ball, but that was about it. He did not end up on a team with Sam or Tucker, and felt a twinge of annoyance. He wanted to talk with them. He dared not attempt to switch out with someone else under Tetslaff's nose, however. She had the gaze of a hawk.

P.E. ended, and lunch was scheduled directly after. The commons was a big windowed area. Danny sat at his usual table with his friends. Tucker had a tendency to flit back and forth between their table and the table with the other geeks like him. Sam was more stationary. In the beginning she was irritated by Tucker's flightiness. In fact she still was, he could tell, but she'd grown more accustomed to it. Danny bought his lunch. A simple sandwich and a milk carton. Sam initiated the conversation, "I can't think of anything!"

He swallowed his bite of cheeseburger, "What do you mean?"

"There's always something unique to discover. Why can't I find it?" She was speaking in tongues he nearly couldn't understand.

He stifled a sigh. "Listen, Sam. If I told you that my parents are ghost-hunters, what would you say?"

"I'd..." she registered what he'd said slowly. "Ask what you're smoking?"

He had to laugh, "No, really." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"So, what, is it a hobby when they're not being scientists?"

"No, Sam. Ghosts _are_ what they study. It's a scientific field. A virtually unknown one, but it is."

She appeared disbelieving for a minute, then she accepted it. Why would her friend lie to her? "Oh, my gosh! I never knew! Why would...?"

He smirked, "Hey, I thought you liked the occult?"

"I do!" She proclaimed, eyebrows knitting together.

"Then...? Ask away!"

Sam seemed unsure what to ask first. "What's their favorite thing to do?"

It was kind of a weak question, but he answered anyway, "Invent things. My mom's pretty famous on her own for some of the stuff she's come up with. I can't really think of...well...lately they've been finishing a really important project of theirs. They started it in college but it didn't work then."

"Why not?"

"They won't tell me." That was true. "But that doesn't matter. It's supposed to be a 'portal' into another dimension. I am _serious_, don't look at me like that. It's real. I'm sure it's everything you've ever wanted to hear about. I told you we had a lab in our basement, didn't I? That's where it is."

"I thought you were exaggerating." She was getting into it now. "Can...can I see it?" He understood the hesitance. The way he'd described it painted a picture of giant steel locks with the words _TOP SECRET_ slapped on them. What was more, it seemed to be a family matter. She was an outsider.

That made him think. "I can ask if I bring my friends over." The idea didn't seem as unlikely as he'd immediately assumed. "We have an observation room in the basement, too. Mom and Dad _never_ let us inside the actual laboratory, so that's about the best you can get."

"That's the coolest thing I've ever heard!" Sam exclaimed.

Danny opened his mouth to say something else—

The lunch bell rung.

"Hey, guys, what I miss?" Tucker chirped, settling down next to Danny as students around them stood, throwing their trays in the trashcans, making for the exits.

Danny grimaced. He hated repeating himself. They didn't have time. "Don't you guys have fifth period together?" He didn't wait for a reply. "Sam, can you explain it to him?"

"I don't mind," she took the labor without complaint.

"Whoa, _whoa_," Tucker said melodramatically. "You're leaving me with _her__?_"

"Have fun, Tuck! Bye Sam!" Danny bared his teeth widely in the darker boy's direction, and it might have been a smile if it wasn't jeering. He gathered his pack and jogged after the masses departing. "Oh-ho no you don't..." He could hear Tucker say as his voice grew further and further behind. Sam waved her hand farewell in a small arc.


	3. THE ACCIDENT, 3

The rest of the school day flew past. Casper High was by no means overpopulated, and he had opportunities to have time with Sam and Tucker throughout the remainder of the day, in the hallways. They managed to find each-other regardless of crowds or room distance...Casper didn't even have two stories. Its football field, belonging to the Casper High Ravens, was tiny in comparison to the high-schools Danny saw in movies. In most States outside of Illinois the city of Amity Park wouldn't even count as a city, it would be a town. It had a few hundred people over twenty-thousand.

Danny involuntarily caught the eye of several strangers strolling down the hall to open his locker. He hadn't seen his sister Jazz all day. She had advanced classes and was more likely than not swamped by them. He didn't think about it much. It meant less of Danny feeling inadequate in her oh-so-genius, redheaded presence.

Shutting his locker, Tucker blurted, "I'd love to see the portal thing!" Danny huffed through his nose. Of course he did. He'd only wanted to see what was down in the basement for years. It had been a thing between them as young children: whoever got furthest down the basement stairs won. Of course being about as subtle as little kids could be they were caught every time. At some point it attempts to see the lab became so frequent Tucker's parents threatened to stop bringing him over to Danny's. _Don't forget that he's a technogeek,_ Danny reminded himself. _Anything with plugs and wires gets him on a roll._

Hopefully his mom and dad would say yes, the more he dwelt on it, the more it sounded like a cool thing to do for his birthday. When the last bell sounded Danny was all set to get off the bus at Tucker's stop. He didn't live that far away and he could walk home from Tucker's place. Sam's family dropped her off and picked her up, and he didn't know where she lived, so he'd have to relay his mom and dad's answer tomorrow.

He had her phone number but he wasn't familiar enough with her to contact her on a natural basis like he did Tucker. She didn't talk about her family a lot but when she did it was usually accompanied by the sort of body language which said they wouldn't appreciate a boy talking to their daughter very much.

"We'll see how it goes, okay? I wanna do it, too." Danny told them. Students were walking past and there was a hum of chatter filling his ears, and he figured that it had been a nice birthday. It could only improve once he got home and went out with his parents to get his present. It almost slipped his mind.

Sam zipped her bag closed. It was a shoulder-strap with a skull logo on both sides. "Whatever happens, I hope you have a good birthday, Danny."

"Hey, thanks, that means a lot." It did.

Later as he boarded the bus and scanned the rows for available seats, he noticed with chagrin that there was nowhere empty for both him and Tucker to sit. They'd have to be apart. Oh well. It may have seemed strange to anyone else for a teenaged boy to feel remorse over something like that, but no one understood. He and Tucker, they were buddies. They shared countless things growing up and Danny really didn't foresee that changing anytime soon. Tucker's stop came up and they stepped off.

"Wait out here, man," Tucker rushed inside and re-emerged a few moments later holding a pile of dusty PlayStation Two games in his arms. "Here ya go!" _Cabela's Dangerous Hunts,_ read the cover of one of them. Danny and Tucker's fathers used to get a laugh out of watching the two play hunter games. They didn't play them the way it was meant to be played. They just ran straight into the prey animals like idiots and shot at them point blank. Fun times. He was glad Sam didn't know about that. She was a staunch supporter of animals' rights and something like a hunting game wouldn't sit well with her.

"This is still really awesome of you, dude," Danny insisted. "I can't get over it."

"No problem. But I'm seriously annoyed you abandoned me to Manson earlier. Yeah, she told me your plans, but she kept going on and on about _other stuff_ too." Tucker grimaced, "Like how otherworldly ghosts are and a thousand different facts about the things. Like I didn't already know everything from spending half my life with you."

"Aw, she means well, she's just trying to stand out," Danny placated, sincere. Sam didn't look down on him for who his parents were despite everybody else's aversion—heck, others' avoidance of him might even have something to do with it, he was strange and therefore worthy of being her friend—and in return he refused to think badly about her. When they had met Sam had been going through a drama spiel with the popular girls and having a friend to support her helped a ton. Danny wasn't completely certain how it had happened, that part of seventh grade was a blur. But it had happened. Sam didn't truly meet Tucker until eighth grade.

"Why?" Tucker frowned, "Why not find a niche and stick with it? It's easier."

Danny searched for a way to describe it. "That is her niche, Tuck. Not having one."

Tucker was unconvinced. "If you say so." There wasn't much use trying to make him see things Danny's way. Not right then. Tucker's face was closed off. It was the look he got when his father or mother and he got into a disagreement.

"I gotta go, see you." Danny waved, Tucker said bye. Shoving the games into his backpack, Danny made for 44678 Gaste Road. It was a few turns to the west. FentonWorks was hard to miss. For one, Danny knew it by heart, and second, it had a sign on it. The front steps were habit. The door creaked open, "Hey, anyone home?" He didn't get an answer, but then he didn't really expect to. Members of the Fenton family were usually occupied with something-or-other. His mom called them active. Danny wished that they'd take a break sometimes.

He settled his stuff on the floor by the couch and laid down on it. The sofa was smooth and welcoming. It was better than the old scratchy one they used to have. Nevertheless Danny's brain wouldn't go into nap-mode. It was too awake. He relented in his efforts to sleep and went searching for his mom, dad, or sister. Said sister might be at the local library. She was infatuated with that building. But his mother and father _had_ to be home. It hit him, then, that they were in the lab. Obviously. Where could they always be found if they weren't up in the living quarters? 'Living quarters,' thought Danny with a wince. At least they sounded like a family of geniuses. Whether or not they were was debatable.

On a technical level, they were. Danny was an A and B student, Jazmine was a straight A+ girl, while his parents made enough money to customize a _freaking legally certified laboratory_ into their own house. On a human level, they were average. They had fights, they made up, sometimes they never did and the issue faded into the background and wouldn't be heard of again, unless someone was particularly set upon it. The household was ordinarily abuzz. Danny waited in the living-room watching TV for about two hours. It felt like a shorter amount of time than that when he heard the telltale sound effects of his mom in the kitchen like she had been that morning.

"Hey-a!" He sang, and stopped in surprise when he saw that his mother was wearing her blue jumpsuit. She only wore it when whatever she was doing in the lab called for serious protection measures. The jumpsuit was an improved form of hazmat, which she and Jack had pre-ordered off the bat once they'd been invented. It was a blend of shielding armor and chemical defense. It wasn't Kevlar or anything but still, the armor was a bit much, Danny joked once, and was silenced when Jack said, "You'd be shocked to know what kinda things go on down there, sonny. And it's about the same as Kevlar. We have a couple for you and your sister, too, but pray we never need them."

"Oh, hi, Danny," she cried. In her hands was a stack, a thick stack, of papers. He wondered what they were. "Your father and I are busy with the Portal. I'm sorry, sweetie, but it looks like we can't get you your present. Something came up in the lab."

"What?" But he'd been looking for it all day! He'd gotten a present from Tucker, but he chose not to tell her that because he had a suspicion she'd use it as an excuse not to get him another gift as well. "But...! Come on!"

"Danny," she began sternly. "Do you know what we're doing down there?"

"Making a gate to another dimension," he replied grouchily. The way the words came out implied that he didn't think very highly of the idea. Even as the words left his mouth he was aware of how nutty they were. That was what his parents were trying to do, alright. No wonder Jazmine was so sullen about it. It may have been his own disappointment talking, but suddenly he just _hated_ the fact his mom and dad were ectologists.

"_Danny_." She said again. "That is _exactly_ what we are doing, young man, and we are not going to drop everything just for you. If we stopped, right now, right this second, _just for you_, then we wouldn't be able to keep going."

He couldn't find it in himself to care. "Fine, whatever." He glowered.

"Oh, Danny," Maddie sighed. "We'll do something the day after tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, sure..." he trailed off. "Hey, speaking of tomorrow. My friends want to come over and watch you activate the Portal." That threw her. It was a rather straightforward way of putting it. "I told them...um...that you study ghosts," they were ectologists, and 'studying ghosts' made them sound like ghost hunters skulking desolate mental wards which hadn't been used in decades. "And...they were really interested. I said I would ask you guys."

"Who?"

"Tucker," she looked like she wanted to smack herself at that. Of course, Tucker Foley. Who else? "And my other friend, Sam Manson."

She still seemed lost. "They want to watch us...?" She queried.

"Yeah. Just, like, stand there in the observation room while you do your thing. You were gonna let Jazz and me do that, weren't you?"

"Yes, I suppose..."

She was thinking hard about it. Then, she looked at him. Really looked at him. Caught off guard by her deep stare, Danny glanced away.

"For your birthday...I guess they can come over."

He brightened, looking up at her.

"As long as they understand that they _cannot enter _our lab, under any circumstances." Her expression twitched as if she was imagining what a bunch of teens could do to her precious work-space. "And if their parents say yes." She amended in afterthought, in a simpler tone which contrasted the dire nature of her previous statement. She was knocked off her feet that anyone outside of the family cared. "But, Danny," she said more firmly, "You understand that you can't go around telling everyone and their cousin about our job?"

"Why not? I mean," he looked away from her thinning mouth, "We're not super-spies."

"That's not the point," Maddie persisted, "The point is that I said so. It's not anyone's business but ours. Now go do something else, your father's waiting for me. Call your friends, I'll tell your father about it."

Oh, boy. That sounded like an order. She disappeared, leaving him with his task. Seemed like he'd have to phone Sam and deal with her parents after all. He'd call Tucker first...Danny didn't have a cell-phone of his own, he'd have to use the home-phone.

"Hey, Tucker. My mom wanted me to tell you they didn't mind you coming over to watch the Portal activation," he said _activation_ deliberately, to make it sound cooler.

On the other side of the line Tucker cheered, "Great! I'll tell my parents. Hang on a sec."

Danny waited.

Tucker returned, "This is GREAT! After school tomorrow!"

"Yeah, get off at my stop?"

"You bet."

"Smell ya later," he hung up.

Next was Sam.

He dialed her number.

She did have a cell. She was the one who answered. "Hello?"

"Hi, Sam. This is Danny. I was gonna tell you tomorrow but my mom told me to call today. You can come over and watch the Portal activate." His choice of wording had a greater effect on her than it had Tucker.

"That is amazing! Thank you so much! I'll call you back, I have to talk to my parents."

Would she really call back, or forget? He wouldn't be bothered if she did. They had a whole school day to talk. She did call back, "I can't believe they agreed to it. Um. I might've made it sound less cool than it actually is. If I made a big deal out of it..." She slowed down, as if in comprehension that she was blabbering. "Which bus is yours?" He informed her, and she paused like she was writing it down. "Thanks! I've never really done this before..."

She was nervous? Huh. It was a change. "Don't worry about it, we'll figure it out at lunch tomorrow."

"'Kay, see you."

"Bye."


	4. THE ACCIDENT, 4

Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs. It wasn't from a can, Maddie preferred to cook things herself, despite the occasional mishaps which she caused. For instance, she was often doing more than one thing at any given time, and that meant she could forget that there was something on the stove or in the oven, which in turn meant burnt food. It sounded like he was making it up it but it _had_ occurred in the past. Her auburn hair was a mite astray as she spread the dinner-plates around the table, now fully clad in normal clothes.

Danny was glad he hadn't seen his dad in _his_ suit. His mom looked decent in blue but his dad's jumpsuit was a shade of orange. _Doesn't help that he's a little on the fat side...no offense._ Whose idea was it to allow people to buy those suits in personalized colors? Jack Fenton had the fashion taste of a colorblind dog. On the other hand, being fashionable wasn't the idea of the suits.

Some nights they spoke till they forgot food was in front of them, but tonight was small-talk. "Did you call your friends?" Maddie ventured between bites.

"Yep, right after you told me to."

"Good for you, Danny."

Jack swallowed a knot of noodles, "I'll try and keep from letting them die of boredom while they're over, son." He joked.

Jazmine chimed in, "Wait, what?" It was the first time Danny'd heard her speak since her yelling about smoke in the morning.

Maddie said to clarify, "Danny's friends are coming over tomorrow to see us activate the Fenton Portal."

"Are you sure that's _safe?_"

"Of course it is, so long as they stay in the observation room," Jack vacuumed another string of noodles, "They _do_ know that, don't they, Danny?"

Danny was getting tired of hearing the words _observation room_ over and over, "I...forgot to mention it when I called. Tucker already knows. I'm sure Sam will get it, she's smart." He assumed that she was. It was a lab. Maybe he was biased, having lived all his life in a house fitted with danger protocols, but it seemed like common sense.

"Make sure to tell them," at first he thought it was his mom speaking, but then he realized it was Jazz's voice he was hearing.

"Yeah," he said shortly. Who did she think she was?

Maddie changed the subject. "Why do we call it an observation room? I don't think that's the correct term."

Danny shrugged. He was pretty sure he was the one who first called it that as a child, and it stuck.

"Hey, it's a room, and you can observe us from it, so it sounds correct to me." Jack harrumphed. Jazmine was unimpressed.

"It's a windowed room," she said. _Can't you ever shut up?_ Danny snipped mentally.

"Yes, it is," Maddie nodded and conversation died.

Danny had no homework because he'd completed it all in class that day. He was free. He decided to play his new games, which he still hadn't told his parents about. The rest of the night was chock-full of hunting missions and getting mauled by pixelated wild animals. He had a blast. When his usual showering time came he chose to take a bath for once, for the sake of bubbles. Then, understanding there was a reason older people took showers instead of baths (baths were _awkward_ and took a longer time if the aim wasn't just to relax), he switched to the shower-head.

His pajamas were dirty so he wore an oversized shirt and baggy pants to bed. He lay there staring at the ceiling, aware that he was less than half-an-hour early to be asleep but uncaring. He didn't feel the digging need to be doing something for once. He just wanted to rest and think. It washed over him not for the first time that day that he was officially fourteen. A real adolescent. In four more years he'd be eighteen and an adult. Just four years. Where would he be then? What college would he attend? What would be his major? He seriously pondered that.

Danny's dream was to be an astronaut. To work for NASA. He'd been pestering his parents to let him take swimming lessons for months. Astronauts needed to know how to swim well, it had something to do with handling environments which weren't governed by gravity. The image of floating in outer space made him giddy, like it always did, but he knew he couldn't play around about it. He had to get the best grades, had to take the right classes. He had to prove himself. Even then, NASA was picky about who they chose. He didn't like to think about it but his parents recommended finding an interest to fall back on in case being an astronaut didn't work out.

He had constellation posters spread all around his room, and toy rockets his granddad bought him from Toys 'R' Us, which they bonded assembling together. A basketball hoop was set up above his door although it was hardly ever used any longer. He stared at it until his eyes drifted closed. _Happy birthday, Fenton. The real event happens tomorrow._

Danny awoke peacefully at 6:20 a.m. There were no alarms going off, no scent of smoke in the air. His sister wasn't caught in the midst of a raging fit. He showered, dressed, prepared his backpack—largely a repeat of what he did every morning. He was tired though. He sat down on the edge of his blue-and-white bed, head still in a fog. The clothing he wore wasn't much different than the stuff he'd worn yesterday. A white t-shirt trimmed with red, an oval shape in the center of the chest. Blue jeans. His sole pair of sneakers. He loitered in his room until he realized he'd be late for the bus if he remained. He didn't see his parents or his sister. It was a Friday. The last day of the school-week. He left the house and hurried to the bus stop.

It didn't take long for the vehicle to arrive, and Danny met Tucker again. This time Tucker saved him a seat. "Hey, today's the day."

"We got a whole eight hours to get through," Tucker pointed out.

"Worth the wait."

The bus halted in its usual area.

The doors had streams of students passing through them and the two boys squeezed through, bumping arms.

English class required the usage of computers that day. Mr. Lancer warned everyone half-jokingly not to shock themselves plugging in the old hunks of junk. Nothing else of note happened.

Or Danny wished nothing happened.

It was in the middle of P.E. Everyone was either playing basketball or jogging laps around the gym, which Sam was doing. She was athletic. Danny and Tucker were wandering aimlessly, searching for a ball no one was using, when Dash Baxter meandered over to Danny. Danny didn't register Dash's presence for a solid five seconds. Dash placed one open palm on Danny's spine and pushed from behind. "What was that for?"

Dash didn't say anything for a heartbeat. He was...conflicted? "What's your sister like?" It was so non-sequitur and unexpected Danny could only blink animatedly.

"Um...why do you wanna know?" The thought creeped up on him that Dash had a crush on Jazmine. It so thoroughly disgusted him that he felt queasy. What if she liked him back?

Dash's unhappiness grew darker. It transformed into disgust, "Forget it. I should've known better than to ask a faggot." He stomped away, shoulders squared.

The sudden cuss was like a slap in the face to Danny and the atmosphere became harsher than it seemed before. _Welcome to the real world. Not everybody's going to like you._ It was a problem of his. He was too idealistic. _Wanna be an astronaut? Tough, so do thousands of other people. What chance do you have?  
_

"What an ass!" Tucker spat.

"I know," Danny agreed. He should warn Jazz, or find out if she was the one initiating Dash's interest. He'd never get over it if she did. Didn't she brag that she was the sensible one of the family? It increasingly didn't seem like it. Lunch came and went. Sam asked question after question, and Danny answered them all. Evidently she spent all the night before researching ectology online. There wasn't much to be found.

"What are ghosts?"

"Ectoplasmic entities."

"So ectoplasm _is _real," her notebook was chock-full of notes. "It's white, right?"

"No, green."

Her pen slowed, "What?"

"Yeah, green. All that stuff on the Internet about mediums coughing up the stuff when they use an Ouija board? Hoaxes. That, or I don't know what they ate."

"Oh..." She erased some scribbling several pages back.

He had meant to be funny, but he guessed it wasn't the right timing.

All three of them had seven periods. Danny knew no one in his sixth or seventh classes, but he got by. When the day was over and it was time to leave Sam stood waiting for him and Tucker at their bus. "I'll just follow you guys," she said. Kids stared at her as they found seats, separate from one another. She wasn't a regular on the bus but the driver didn't realize that. The driver was miserable and jaded, all kids looked the same to him. That was a dark thought to have. Danny could justify it though. The driver never said hello back to the friendlier riders. That was a sure indicator.

Danny watched the buildings and roads go by.

_Gaste St._, said a small green sign.

This was his stop.

Sam sat ahead of him and she waited for him to pass her before she stood, someways behind he heard Tucker move. The wind was crispy and noticeable. It messed with Sam's hair and she blew it out of her face, "What if it doesn't work?"

Danny and Tucker looked at her simultaneously, then they glanced at one another. 'What if it didn't work'? Why wouldn't it? His parents were accomplished people despite the lack of recognition they had, and they'd been concentrating on the Fenton Portal for _years_. But Sam didn't know that. This was all news to her. "I'm sure it will." Danny reassured, "Trust me."

Danny knocked on the door and to his dismay Jazmine opened it. He didn't even know why he knocked, he had a key, but his friends were there and it felt natural. "Hi, Danny," she hello'd, "Hi, Tucker." She gave Sam a closer look, and might have spoken to her too if Danny hadn't interjected.

"Can we get in?"

Something flickered in Jazz's greenish eyes. She said, "Of course," and walked out of sight, presumably to her room to stick her nose in more textbooks. The Dash incident popped into Danny's mind and he regretted making her leave.

Danny hollered, closing the door once Sam and Tucker were inside, "Mom? Dad? My friends are here." He added, "You can put your stuff on the floor by the door if you wanna." They did just that, Tucker like it was second nature.

"Oh, hello, Tucker," Maddie entered the living-room...and she was wearing the blue jumpsuit, which meant Jack was somewhere generally clashing with the surroundings in his orange one. Tucker had only seen glimpses of the suits before, but now he seemed to understand that things were serious as he took the detail in. Danny could sense Sam's bewilderment. "It's nice to meet you, Sam. Danny's told me about you."

"Cool," Sam smiled. It was a different smile than the sarcastic one he was used to seeing, "It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Fenton."

"Your father's already down there," Maddie said to Danny, "Now, before we go, I want to make a few things clear. No one but my husband and I are allowed inside the lab. You kids are to stay in the observation room and watch from there. There are chairs you can sit in if you want. Is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Tucker responded, Maddie pursed her lips at him. It was all in good cheer, Tucker was practically a part of the family.

"We'll wait here while Jazmine gets ready," Maddie told them, "She wants to see it too."

She did? She hated everything to do with ectology. It didn't fit her beliefs. Whatever. If Danny was invited to something which could potentially disprove everything he believed in, he'd also be curious.

"So, what are you kids up to?" Maddie implored not unkindly.

"I dunno," Sam said casually, but politely, "I'm a vegetarian...I've been exploring alternate vegan diets," she explained.

"That sounds very interesting, good for you, Sam."

Tucker, never one to go ignored, "And I've been _amazing_ as per usual." Danny gave him side-eye. It was physically paining Sam not to insult him. The strain in her expression was hilarious.

"I see," Maddie laughed.

"All that's really out of the ordinary for me is that I'm fourteen," Danny threw in for good measure.

She ruffled his hair. "Yes, but we all know about that."

"Aww." What were they, cartoon characters? She couldn't just do that in front of his friends!

The basement door opened and Jack emerged. "Hey, gang." He surveyed the room. "Jazzy's not ready?"

"Nope, that's what we're waiting for," Maddie confirmed.

"Well, you don't have to wait anymore," Danny jumped a little at Jazmine's interruption. How long had she been standing there? She was wearing a black sweater with aquamarine pants. Her long hair had a band keeping her fringe back, she overall appeared very neat and orderly. "I needed to call my friends and talk to them. They keep pestering me to date for some reason." A note of distaste entered her tone.

Date who? "You have friends?" Danny coughed.

"Danny!" His mom reprimanded. "Now that we're all here, why don't we go?" She looked at Jack expectantly.

Tucker breathed, "What exactly are you gonna do to activate it?"

"The final thing to do is plug it in, and presto! Instant Portal!" Jack blustered.

Tucker seemed baffled, "Just a plug?"

"Considering everything else we've done for twenty years, it's the finishing figurine on the top of the wedding cake, so yes, 'just a plug.'" Jack held the door open for Maddie to walk through. The stairs were concrete and a stark contrast to the rest of the house. They all followed Maddie down. Bright lights illuminated the observation room at the bottom, and squeaky foldable chairs were in a pile against the wall. An ominous glass pane cut them off from the sleek laboratory before them, lit by translucent lights and outfitted with tables, computers, charts, and equipment. It wasn't white like labs were in movies, it was an amalgamation of dark green hues.

Far back in the very middle was a hexagonal hole in the wall. It went on deeply and disappeared into darkness.


	5. THE ACCIDENT, 5

"There it is," Danny said for his friends' benefit, mostly. Excuse him for being dramatic, he wanted to make an impression on them. Sam and Tucker were awed. It must have been like prime film material for them. Jazmine and her brother had seen it a million times, it wasn't that big of a deal. Or maybe it was, and they were just used to it.

Jack unfolded some chairs for them and Danny sat gratefully. Jazmine stood, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Danny realized Sam still held an object in her hands despite her bag having been placed by the front door above. It was a camera.

The married couple looked like a million dollars. This day would make their career. Danny's chest swelled with pride, if this worked, the world would never be the same, and the world didn't even care to know it. It shunned ectology, treated it like a leper. Laughed at it. Danny liked the thought that his parents might just be happier from then on. He eyed Jazmine. She avoided meeting his blue eyes. How would she take it?

Jack went in, wordless. "Get comfortable while we set things up," Maddie dictated, closing the lab door behind her.

They did some things, pulled some levers, pressed buttons, typed codes into the computers. It was fascinating to Tucker due to the technology, but Danny looked on closely for far more personal reasons, they were his mom and dad, and it was an experience to see them this excited. Eventually Jack turned to face them with stride and gave a thumbs-up.

It was time.

The plug he picked up was huge, Maddie holding the opposite piece. She kissed her husband on the cheek. Nothing could describe how the lines in Jack's face melted, he looked younger. It painted an incredibly sweet picture and even Jazz smiled a bit. The two parts connected.

It appeared to start up...

Like a sad sparking engine, nothing happened.

Maddie slowly lowered her hood, the red goggles coming back with it. Danny saw her mouth move, though he couldn't hear her. _I...don't understand._

Jack was sluggish to respond, _Me, either._

They spoke some more, hushed, beleaguered, their faces turning away so Danny couldn't read their lips.

"What happened?" Tucker was the first to recover.

"It didn't work," Jazmine answered without pretense, "Just like I thought it wouldn't."

"Hey," Danny was fast to defend, "They did their best."

Jazz frowned. "Whatever. It was doomed to fail from the beginning. I love them, but they have their flaws." She left up the stairs that she had come through. Danny fumed. How could she say something like that? Jack and Maddie were silent as the grave as they came back to the group.

"Well..." Maddie said quietly after a long while, "I'm...sorry to disappoint you kids."

Then they left.

"I'm really sorry it didn't work," Sam said uncertainly, awkwardly.

"It's okay, I mean...they'll figure out what went wrong."

"Um..."

"Yeah?"

"I...really wanted a picture of you in here...is that alright?"

"Why me?"

"You're the ectologists' kid...I thought it would have some novelty then."

If they weren't friends that would have stung. Danny didn't know why, but he felt like a prop in a play when she put it that way. "Sure," he wasn't going to deny her something she obviously wanted so badly just because of this. He looked around at the surroundings and couldn't help but think that they were bland. His attention turned to the glass and his first thought was, _No, I couldn't,_ but then he said, "I've got a better idea. Why don't you take a picture in the lab?"

She looked as stricken as he'd ever seen her, "But...wouldn't that be disobeying your parents?"

"This is about the only chance Tuck and I will ever get to go in there and not get in trouble." Tucker's crossed arms came down to his sides at the mention of his name, "I don't think you get how much this means to us."

"Uh..." Tucker searched for words. "Are you sure?"

"Why not?"

"Don't they have cameras?"

"They never check 'em," or at least he never heard them talking about it.

Tucker was hesitant, "Okay, dude..."

"Well, that is, if the door even opens. It might not. Sorry to have gotten your hopes up if it doesn't." He turned the doorknob, fully expecting it to defy him.

It didn't.

The door swung open easily.

Danny swallowed, and entered the lab. His friends followed his lead. It was anticlimactic; no alarms went off, Danny didn't feel as if he'd just broken a law.

He turned on his heel and quirked an eyebrow at Sam. She took the cue and a flash brightened the microscopes and magnifiers set up on the tables to the left and right.

While Tucker absorbed as much as he could with his eyes, Sam went around photographing whatever she thought seemed interesting. Danny wasted no time getting up close and personal with everything he saw. He didn't touch them, the last thing he wanted was to risk contamination.

It was when he found himself standing at the mouth of the defunct Portal, gazing into it contemplatively, that Sam called, holding her camera up so he could see, "Hey! Stand right there!"

And suddenly he grinned. Just grinned. This was all going more smoothly than he'd imagined.

"Better idea."

On the wall there were two sets of suits. One was blue like his mother's but smaller in stature, while another was stark white and black. He knew which one was his, his mom had shown it to him the day it had arrived in the mail. Grabbing the colorless suit, he pulled it on quickly over his own clothes. There'd been a mistake in the shipping, his jumpsuit was supposed to be orange like his dad's, while Jazz's mimicked their mothers. This was the first time he'd ever worn it. He felt the goggles bounce against the back of his neck. He brought them over his face.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing?" Tucker said a little loudly. "Are you serious?"

"What? It's perfectly safe. The thing doesn't work anyway."

"...Can I get a picture in it after you?"

"Ask Sam, not me," Danny gestured to the girl.

She tilted her head as comprehension dawned on her, "I don't see why not." A jovial glint in her eye.

Danny approached the Portal, stepping inside its shape. He smiled as widely and toothily as he could, putting some real effort and emotion into it. _Click, _went Sam's camera. "Got it."

Danny started walking out, and staggered over a cord. It made a cracking sound beneath his shoe, and something began.

A rising hum, the tang of electric potential in the air...and a swift, crushing foreboding, the product of instinct faster than thought. He tried to run.

Everything around Danny lit up–white light, intense–it consumed Danny's vision. His friends were enveloped in the light in an instant, he was blinded. For what must have been a fraction of a second time froze as he understood what he'd done. He'd done something very, very stupid. He _saw_ the shocks traveling up his body before the actual agony started to register. His world transformed into nothing but pain in every nerve and fiber of his–he stopped thinking. Everything lurched as his heart stopped, and his brain forced a blackout to preserve itself.


	6. THE ACCIDENT, 6

The sheer force rattled the laboratory, and likely the entire house, with some aftershocks reaching the neighbors. The lights went out several times, plunging Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley into pitch blackness. They revived themselves even as Sam screamed, "_DANNY!_" camera dropping like a rock from nerveless fingers. She scrambled forward on weak feet to reach her friend, Tucker fell to his knees. He stood there and watched while his best friend died. He'd never see Danny Fenton again. He hadn't talked to him enough. Hadn't let him know how much he meant to Tucker. How much of a great friend he was. His parents would never let him live this horrible error down.

"_Danny!_" Sam was already down on the floor, tears in her eyes, before she saw what was different. Her thoughts fizzled and jump-started over and over, she thought she was seeing things. Hadn't the jumpsuit been white and black, not black and white? Wasn't his hair black, not white? Shaking hands reached to pull him to his feet futilely–not because he refused to stand up or he was too heavy, but he slipped right through her hands like a wisp of mist. He had fallen chest-first onto the floor, next to them unholy greenness whirled and materialized into existence. None of it was as powerful as Samantha's remorse.

Was he _smoking?_

She wrenched her eyes shut tightly, tears streaming hot and unforgiving down her face. Everything was wrong, hellishly wrong, and they'd never be right again. Someone was dead and it was her fault. Through her eyelids shone a bluish pale brightness that lasted a moment, the surreal nature of it opening her eyes against her will. Her vision blurry, she witnessed something she didn't understand. All she knew was that with no explanation Danny was black-haired again. She gave up attempting to understand it, she merely curled in on herself and sobbed. Footsteps thundered heavily down the basement stairs.

Mr. and Mrs. Fenton laid eyes upon the Portal first.

Then they saw who was on the floor in front of it.

Meekly, Jazmine came up behind them. Her breath hitched.

Samantha knew she was being pushed aside and she did nothing to stop it.

"What _happened__?!_" Mrs. Fenton.

"He went inside," Tucker stammered, half-shouting, "We let him...!"

"Oh, my god..."

It was too real for Samantha. She shut it out.

What seemed like hours later she was standing boneless in the Fenton's kitchen, watching the paramedics cart away the boy she'd killed. He wasn't breathing. If Mr. Fenton had tried CPR it hadn't worked. The jumpsuit Danny'd thrown on haphazardly was singed. They were trying the defibrillator...Sam thought she'd throw up. Did he need to be electrocuted twice?

Tucker wanted to call his parents and tell them how badly he'd screwed up, wanted to hear the outrage and disbelief in his father's voice as he said to his son, "Do you even begin to comprehend what you've done to that boy and his family?" Hear the thump of his mother collapsing in a dining room chair as she listened to the painfully honest tale, worse than the time he'd been marched home after pushing another boy off the monkey-bars, which had fractured the boy's arm. A thousand times worse.

The paramedic rubbed together the defibrillators.

"Clear!"

Danny gasped. _Danny_.

Sam fainted, legs folding.

Some words were exchanged, it sounded like gibberish to Tucker, and then the room was empty sans himself and...Sam.

Sam, the girl he'd never liked, although Danny had wanted him to, was motionless, back pressed up against the cupboards of the Fentons' kitchen. Her face was smothered against her knees. Had she passed out? The limpness implied yes. "Sam," he whispered, hoarse, bile rising his throat in the aftermath, "Sam. We need to...call our parents..." He was giving into a shred of madness, _We need to tell them...that we're killers..._

"Sam..."

It was a very long time indeed before she stirred.

Her eyes were red around the edges but with none of the grogginess he'd expected to see. Maybe she'd been wide-awake all this time. Or who knew. She stared at him dead on but he couldn't find the words. Neither of them could. So he flopped on the floor next to her. She breathed a sudden breath which seemed to shake her being and Tucker felt pity. He did nothing though. They were drowning. They had been left alone, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton ignored them in favor of their child. He didn't blame them, not one bit.

Jazmine should be crying, a part of her wanted to, but in truth she was too shell-shocked to do anything but get in the family car and watch her father speed through traffic to follow the ambulance which carried her brother. Her mother Madeline looked like a fragile, tiny thing in the front seat, and Jazmine wanted to hold her, but in this state she'd likely be smacked away. They were all irrational right now. The adrenaline rush left Jazmine winded. In the back of her mind, Danny's friends still inside FentonWorks rose as an issue, and so did the wide-open front door Jack hadn't bothered to close.

She locked her eyes on the ambulance and thought of nothing else but the blaring sirens that told her nothing from this point onward would ever be the same.


End file.
